Quantitative separation of antioxidant pigments in purple sea urchin shells using a reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography

Sea urchin shells are generally discarded as food waste after removal of edible gonads, although they possess significant amount of polyhydroxylated naphtoquinone pigments having potent antioxidant property. In this study, separation and quantification of the pigment mixtures from purple sea urchin shells were performed using a C18 reversed-phase HPLC with isocratic elution of 50% mixture of solvent (A) formic acid: water (0.1: 100, v/v) and solvent (B) MeOH: acetonitrile (5: 9, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The pigment mixtures were separated into four major peaks in 30 min, which assumed to be spinochromes A, B and C and echinochrome A on the basis of UV-Vis absorption spectra obtained by a diode array detector. LC-MS analysis also supported these results by producing the predominant base peaks at m/z 221.1, 279.1, 265.1, and 263.1 corresponding to the pseudomolecular ions [M-H]⁻ of the respective compounds. The HPLC method also showed good correlations (r² > 0.98) between injected amounts of these pigments and peak areas recorded at 340 and 520 nm. These results indicated that the HPLC method developed in this study would be applicable for the separation and quantification of these major pigments in sea urchin shells.     

Studies on Epoxy Resin Film Coating by the Flame Spraying Method

The authors have shown that special formulations are required to give complete covering of steel surface (with no swelling, break away, cracks, etc) with flame sprayed film coating of epoxy resin. For this purpose, there should be minimum stress in the film, and it was concluded that treatments effective for this purpose involve adding adequate filler to reduce the thermal expansion coefficient, controlling the degree of cure, holding small closed pores in the film and semi-curing immediately after spray to keep the required tensile strength.     

A study of electrical characteristic changes in MOSFET by electron beam irradiation

Mechanisms for electrical characteristic changes in MOSFET caused by electron beam irradiation were studied using a SEM-based nano-probing system. A shift in V_th occurs when a hole is trapped in a defect (oxygen vacancy) in the gate dielectric layer. Holes are generated when the plasmon is excited by electron beam irradiation. Further, an electric field is created by the positive charge-up resulting from electron beam irradiation of the ILD, causing an increase in leakage between gate and drain leading to an increase in I_off. This study shows that advanced devices can be measured using a SEM-based nano-probing system without inducing electrical characteristic changes by optimizing the measurement conditions such as acceleration voltage, electron beam current, image magnification, ILD thickness, and electron beam irradiation time.     

Microphase-separated structure and mechanical properties of novel polyurethane elastomers prepared with ether based diisocyanate

A diisocyanate baring ether bonds, 1,2-bis(isocyanate)ethoxyethane (TEGDI), was used for the preparation of polyurethane elastomers (PUEs). The PUEs were synthesized with either TEGDI or HDI, poly(oxytetramethylene) glycol (PTMG), and curing agents by a prepolymer method. 1,6-Hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) was also used as a control diisocyanate. The TEGDI-based PUEs exhibited highly softened property on account of flexibility of TEGDI itself and weaker phase separation. Another TEGDI-based PUEs were prepared with either poly(oxypropylene) glycol (PPG) or poly(caprolactone) glycol (PCL). Microphase-separated structure of these TEGDI-based PUEs are quite different from those with general diisocyanates and the PUEs were made be greatly softened.     

Development of a new displacement-measuring ultrasonic sensor based on astigmatic focus error detection-measuring principle and its demonstration

Conventional ultrasonic displacement-measuring systems normally employ the pulse-echo technique. Resultant resolution capability, however, typically is not suitable for meeting high-dimensional, in-process measurement standards used in cutting and grinding operations. This paper presents a new ultrasonic sensor for displacement measurement based on astigmatic focus error detection. The measuring principle and basic analysis applied in the design method are described in detail, after which the validity of the principle is demonstrated by the results of experimental evaluations.     

Framework for Performance-Based Design of Building Structures

Abstract:   This article proposes a new framework for performance-based design (PBD) of building structures. This framework was proposed under the 3-year Japanese Government Comprehensive Research and Development Project on "Development of a New Engineering Framework for Building Structures" launched in the fiscal year of 1995. The primary objective of the project is to create a system in which the performance of buildings is clearly stated, and consumers, that is, occupants, are well informed of how their buildings will perform and how much it will cost to maintain their performance. The framework emphasizes the establishment of target performance, the performance evaluation, and the performance statement as the main three elements. It also stresses that an institutional framework and support systems need to be provided to enable PBD to be practiced efficiently. The implementation of the proposed framework is also expected to promote engineering innovation, progress in building engineering, and globalization. The new framework will also bring other benefits, such as improved design techniques, greater design flexibility, and international harmonization. It is also important for building structural performance to become one of the most important indexes for consumers to define a building's value. The Japanese building code was changed to the performance-based code, based in the clear and comprehensive manner proposed in this article. In the United States, "Vision 2000" ( SEAOC, 1995 ) was published, then many research activities were conducted simultaneously.     

Malignant transformation of NIH3T3 cells by overexpression of mot-2 protein

The murine mortalin genes, mot-1 and mot-2, are members of the hsp70 family of proteins and differ from each other by only two amino acid residues. Mot-1 is expressed in normal cells and has pancytosolic cellular distribution whereas mot-2 is found in the perinuclear region of immortal cells. We report here that a high level of expression of mot-2 protein resulted in malignant transformation of cells as analysed by anchorage independent growth and nude mice assays. A high level of protein expression is attributed to the 900 bp 3' untranslated region of the cDNA which does not have any transforming activity per se. Mortalin cDNA clones isolated from human transformed cells were also found to have transforming activity in similar assays and a high level of expression was apparent in some of the human immortalized cells that showed non-pancytosolic mortalin immunofluorescence. Taken together, the data suggest that nonpancytosolic mortalin may have a role in tumorigenesis.     

Hydrothermal flames in supercritical water oxidation: investigation in a pilot scale continuous reactor

Hydrothermal flames at 25 MPa supercritical water environment were investigated using a 4800 ml reaction tower, in which the sapphire windows were fitted for optical access. Down flowing hydrothermal flames were observed for oxidation of 2-propanol when the reactor was fed with inlet organic concentration higher than 2 vol% and air ratio higher than 1.8. Flame temperature, as high as 1100 °C, was measured by means of a thermocouple and the temperature was found to be strongly influenced by air ratio. Effective and stable oxidation of organics with TOC removal rate of 99.9% was achieved. Dioxins were also decomposed with a ratio higher than 99.9%, within 1 min reaction time in this reactor configuration.